Landscape
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Landscape photography is slow. The light does the work, the scene doesn't move much, and you can use a tripod. That changes what matters in a camera.
What matters
- Resolution and dynamic range. Landscapes are often printed big and include bright skies and dark foregrounds in one frame. A sensor with a lot of dynamic range keeps detail in both. Full-frame and high-resolution bodies shine here, but any modern sensor does well at base ISO.
- Weather sealing. You'll be out in wind, spray and drizzle at dawn. A sealed body and lens survive it.
- A tilting screen makes low or high compositions on a tripod far easier.
- Battery life in the cold. Cold drains batteries fast. Carry spares in an inside pocket.
Lenses
- A wide zoom, around 16-35mm on full frame or 10-24mm on APS-C, is the classic landscape lens: big skies, strong foregrounds.
- A standard zoom, 24-70mm or similar, covers most scenes.
- A telephoto zoom, 70-200mm or longer, is underrated: it picks out layers of hills, a lone tree, or light on a distant ridge.
You don't need fast apertures for landscapes, since you'll usually shoot between f/8 and f/11 for depth of field and sharpness. That makes f/4 zooms a great choice: lighter and cheaper than the f/2.8 versions. Stopping down past about f/16 softens the image through diffraction, so avoid it unless you need the depth.
The rest of the kit
- A sturdy tripod. It lets you use base ISO, small apertures and long exposures. A light carbon-fibre tripod is the best upgrade most landscape shooters can buy.
- A circular polariser deepens skies and cuts reflections on water and wet leaves. It's the one filter software can't fake.
- ND filters slow the shutter for smooth water and streaking clouds.
- A remote release, or the self-timer, so pressing the button doesn't shake the camera.
When the light is good
Shoot in the hour after sunrise and before sunset, and stay out after the sun has gone down: the blue hour is often the best light of the day.
